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One of my favourite forms of art is that in miniature, as it often brings together a number of my creative loves – model-making, toys, material-faking, and photography. This is a collection of some of the better miniature art or miniature -lookalikes I’ve bookmarked over the past years:

Thomas Doyle – “My work mines the debris of memory through the creation of intricate worlds sculpted in 1:43 scale and smaller. Often sealed under glass, the works depict the remnants of things past—whether major, transformational experiences, or the quieter moments that resonate loudly throughout a life. / … Though surrounded by chaos, hazard, and longing, the figures’ faces betray little emotion, inviting viewers to lose themselves in these crucibles—and in the jumble of feelings and memories they elicit. The glass itself contains and compresses the world within it, seeming to suspend time itself—with all its accompanying anguish, fear, and bliss.” – statement on website.

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Amy Bennett – “Working with common themes such as transition, aging, isolation, and loss, I am interested in the fragility of relationships and the awkwardness of a group of people trying to coexist and relate to one another. To that end I create miniature 3D models to serve as evolving still lifes from which I paint detailed narrative paintings” – statement on website

Bennett also does paintings which look like miniature landscapes and neighbourhoods … which I’m more interested in.

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Matthew Albanese – “My work involves the construction of small-scale meticulously detailed models using various materials and objects to create emotive landscapes. Every aspect from the construction to the lighting of the final model is painstakingly pre-planned using methods which force the viewers perspective when photographed from a specific angle. Using a mixture of photographic techniques such as scale, depth of field, white balance and lighting I am able to drastically alter the appearance of my materials.” – statement on website

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Tilt Shift Photography ‘refer to the use of camera movements on small- and medium-format cameras, and sometimes specifically refers to the use of tilt for selective focus, often for simulating a miniature scene.’ – Wikipedia.

Tilt-Shift Faking is a contemporary technique with uses digital post-processing techniques to get the same sort of result as tilting. Often this will involve selectively blurring and flat painting area out to achieve the effect. It can be done with film too as shown through editing every film frame as shown in most of Thom Yorke’s music video Harrowdown Hill by Smallgantic. [clip] This is a before and after frame from the music video: